songs on godly living

Jocelyn is after some.  Anyone know any?

Congregational songs on godly living are really hard to find because they are really hard to write.  Grown ups hate being told what to do (kids are used to it!) and preachy-ness generally makes for a bad song anyway.  I've tried many times, but most have been way too awful to send to Philip for a tune.  But here are a few suggestions:

Be Thou My Vision
May the Mind
Take My Life
1 Cor 13 (Rob Smith)
(but they are the three obvious ones)

These ones are a bit more tangential...
We belong to the day
Let Your Kingdom Come
Grace Unmeasured
We Are His People

Hopefully our new song will be finished soon.  It's our best attempt so far at a song on godly living.  At some stage we were thinking of re-releasing Nothing Else Matters as an adult song.  You could try that.

Anyone else have ideas?

slavery to sheet music

Craig has written a piece for Sydney Anglicans on directing music at church. This bit touched my heart:

Another major challenge, for my church at least, has been managing the sheet music. It is continually going missing, or winding up in the wrong folder, and we spend precious minutes at rehearsal trying to track it down.

So true, so true.

Sheet music is dreadful stuff.  It tries to rule my life.  Before church on a Sunday I just want to get on with practicing.  But I have to search for the sheet music first, and make sure there is a copy for everyone.  During church I want to play in a key in which the congregation can actually sing.  But the sheet music says G major, so what can I do?  And I don't want to play 4 different chords per bar but that's what's written!  After church I want to go talk to people.  I don't want to do the tedious task of filing stupid music away.  But I have to.  I am a slave to these little black dots on A4 pieces of paper.  I need them so I have to obey them. And what they scream out is 'FILE ME!' and 'PLAY ME!'  But I don't want to do either.

I need a solution. 

Here are my options:

1. We put a nice little ipad on each music stand. 
I think there could be a system with CCLI where when song owners publish a song, we send it electronically to CCLI - both sheet music and a recording (we already do this - but we could do it in a way that it could easily be put on a website - Scorch or whatever).  Then CCLI chuck it up on a site and churches can pick their songs and play them from the screen.  If ti was done in a decent program, we could transpose it easily and have just a melody and chords, just chords and words, or a full piano score.  The program could keep a track of what music we are using and bill us accordingly.

Pros

• Clean.  After the initial registration, there would be no paperwork.  No CCLI returns to put in, no sheet music to lose.  No paper, no mess!  
• Useful. You could do transpositions or whatever with a single click!  You could play a demo of the song so you know what you are aiming for. You could use whichever version of the score was most helpful to you: chords and words, melody and chords, full piano...

Cons

• Non-existent. Such a system doesn't really exist yet.  Someone would need to make it.
• Expensive.  Hard to justify the expense when there are people starving in the world

2.   We ditch sheet music all together and memorise every song instead.

Pros

• Cheap.  Saves money on photocopying.
• Educational.  Memorization helps you understand the music better - if you understand it better, you'll improvise better and transpose better.
• Freeing.  Most sheet music (for modern songs at least) was never intended to be played.  Not having it there will free people up to play what they should play
• Clean.  No mess to clear up.  No music to file.
• Cooler.  You can play with a fan blowing in your face and the music won't fly away.
• Helpful.  Will show the drummers that we are as clever as they are.
• Satisfying.  Great adrenaline buzz at the start of each song. Excellent feeling if you make it to the end together.

 Cons

• Scary.  Suggesting this would freak people out.  
• Dangerous.  Higher possibility of major musical catastrophes... 

3.  We continue our lives of slavery to printed music.  
But who wants to?

Which option should we take?

Vagueness and 'Mighty to Save'

A fun discussion is happening over here on Peter's blog.

A commenter said this:


“I’ve grown a bit tired of songs that are like a theological treatise and afraid of getting personal with God.”

I hear this all the time.  Mostly I say nothing.  Not this time.  Here's what I wrote. 


Any song that sings like a theological treatise is probably just a bad song. But I’d love to know what songs you put in this category. We sing stuff that is quite meaty… but also engaging and moving. I don’t think I’d want particular songs on my church playlist if they had the emotional impact of a text book. But maybe we are all different on this, and songs that I experience as moving leave my sister in the next pew cold.

The other question I have is about ‘getting personal with God’. What do you mean by this? Is it through confession of sin, telling God how much you love him, hearing about and feeling moved by God’s love for you, or something else? I don’t have a problem with any of these things – it is just worth exploring what it is that you want a congregational singing experience to give you. I was chatting with a friend the other day and realised that what she wanted from congregational singing was a feeling of nearness to God that could be achieved without the drudgery of daily bible reading and prayer and patience with her children. And I want this too. I’m human so the song that builds for the first 3/4 and then climaxes before finishing with a string of whispered sweet nothings appeals to me. There’s buzz in that. Is that what you mean by getting personal with God?

What do you think?

sh!

Don't tell anyone yet but preparations for the first ever Brisbane twist music ministry conference are underway.  It will be fantastic.  All the cool people will be there doing very cool things.  The uncool people (me) will also be there and we'll be having such a great time that we'll forget to wish that we were cool too.  It'll be the kind of event we'll file away in our minds and rave about when we're 108 and senile.  Don't say anything now, just smile smugly when you see it announced in the sky (or on your church bulletin) and remember that you heard it first here.

just bought on itunes...

Wish by Sutton Foster.

I love her voice.  I've been listening to her (probably illegally) on you-tube for a year or more. 

the one I love

sentimentality

A friend pointed this out today. Worth sharing, I thought.

‘Sentimentality is subtle. C.S. Lewis once told a young writer: “Instead of telling us a thing is ‘terrible’, describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was a ‘delight’, make us say ‘delightful’ when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (‘horrifying’, ‘wonderful’, ‘hideous’, exquisite’) are only saying to your readers, ‘Please will you do my job for me.”’. Lewis complains that authors of gushy and sentimental words are tyrannical because they tell the readers how they must feel rather than letting the subject work on them in the same way it did the author. Sentimental worship leading works in exactly the same way that Lewis describes. With typical comments – “Isn’t he just wonderful?” “Isn’t it such a blessing?” – the leader tells people how they ought to feel about God instead of telling them about God.

Tim Keller in ‘Worship By The Book’ edited by Don Carson (p209-10). CS Lewis quote comes from Letters of CS Lewis ed. WH Lewis (New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 1966), 271.

something I found out today

We shouldn't have drums in church because they give women orgasms.

[Just letting you know.]

interesting

Today I was at church but not available to play piano (I was teaching Sunday School). No other pianists were available either. So there was no piano - just guitar and drums. As a congregation we sang better than we've sung for ages. More volume, more enthusiasm.

[Trying not to take it personally.]

Maybe we try too hard.

domestics

Andrew and I are having a little disagreement over here. Come over and join in if you're on my side.

Is it pathetic to admit...

... that I enjoyed High School Musical more than any movie I've seen for a long long time?

Got the dvd this afternoon and have watched it twice already. The kids are keen to see it again (they've only watched it once) so we may have a re-run tomorrow.

How cool that there are another two out there waiting for me!

I'm a princess, sweet and fair...

I've just read Kerri Newmarch's very thorough article 'Look at me! I'm a Princess' (thanks Ali) which analyses princess culture* both in and outside the church. The article concludes by advising us to be cautious in using princess themes in our ministries to children.

It's got me thinking. I wonder if my little song 'I'm a knight' (from J is for Jesus) is leading kids astray. For the uninitiated, here it is:

I'm a Knight

I’m a knight from long ago
If you’re in trouble, let me know.
I’m brave as brave and strong as strong
I ride my horse and sing my song

La, la, la. La, la, la.
I’m a knight from long ago
La, la, la. La, la, la.
If you’re in trouble, let me know.

I’m a princess sweet and fair
With sparkling eyes and golden hair
I’m kind and loving all day long
I dance around and sing my song.

La, la, la. La, la, la.
I'm a princess sweet and fair,
La, la, la. La, la, la.
With sparkling eyes and golden hair.

But Jesus is the best of all
He heals the sick and helps the small
He’s brave and strong, he is our king
He loves us more than anything

La, la, la. La, la, la.
Jesus is the best of all.
La, la, la. La, la, la.
He heals the sick and helps the small. **

© 2007 Simone Richardson

We've used it quite a bit in school RE ('scripture' for those in NSW), play group, and kids club, but always with my very un-princessey theology surrounding it. I've never told any little girl that she's God's princess. We do knight and princess dress ups, tell a few heroic stories, and then explain that Jesus is far better than any of that.

But the song is out there now. I wonder if it's being used to promote ideas that I don't share. Not that there's much I can do...


* Basically, 'princess culture' is telling little girls (and grown women too) that they are God's princesses. So special, beautiful etc etc. Kerri Newmarch argues that it promotes vanity and narcissism. I agree.

** I wrote another verse for this song which I sometimes use, even though the big and mean emu management :-) wouldn't let it go on the cd (for the feeble reason that it's got nothing to do with Jesus!) Here it is for anyone who's interested:

I’m a dragon from the mire,
My claws are sharp, my breath is fire
I’m sad and lonely as you see,
‘Cause everyone’s afraid of me!

La, la, la. La, la, la (etc)

twist

Twist music ministry conference in on soon. Dominic Steele is teaching. The music is always great. There will be a free 'J is for Jesus' concert for the kids. It will be a fantastic weekend.

I'm running three of the many workshops: Music for preschoolers (Saturday), Changing the musical culture of your church (Sunday) and Lyric Writing (Monday). I've done the first two for the last couple of years, but lyric writing is brand new. I'm quite excited about it. I'll be talking about things I love: rhyme (in all its wonderful forms), meter, fresh expression, biblical teaching that engages the emotions, processing and theologising our experiences of God so that they can edify others.... Is it just me, or do others find this stuff exciting too?

Andy Judd from Garage Hymnal offered me this little rhyme to use to explain the significance of iambic metre. Read it out loud stressing the capital letters and you'll understand.

i WANT to BE a SYLL –a- BLE,

with EM -pha- SIS on TWO;

but IF you SHOULD put STRESS on ONE:

the LINES will SOUND like POO.

Now try it the other way round…

I want TO be A syll –A- ble,

WITH em -PHA- sis ON two;

BUT if YOU should PUT stress ON one:

THE lines WILL sound LIKE poo.


Cute, hey? Come to Twist and learn to write like that!

Anyone planning to be there?

Women and Judgement

Today I ran a music workshop for the Chinese Christian Church. It was a good thing to do, but I felt very unqualified to do it! They have perhaps the most efficient music co-ordinator I've ever come across. She has chosen 'team leaders' for each music team, job descriptions for each member, dress codes, permanent practice schedules, prayer meetings ... Seven years ago she was the church's only musician. There were 25 people at the training day today. Wow!

Before we got our instruments out, I talked for a while about what the bible says about music. We started by talking about songs in the bible eg. Moses' song (Ex 15), Hannah's song (1 Sam 2), Mary's song (Luke 2), Revelation, Psalms etc. In preparing, I noticed a couple of interesting things that I hadn't thought of before:

• We hear women's voices more in song than in regular speech in the bible. Deborah, Hannah and Mary get verses and verses! And don't forget the Song of Songs where the female voice is given half the book!

So is it okay for women to teach men - as long as they do it in verse? (As a sometimes-lyricist, this idea has appeal!)

• God's judgment of his enemies is a major theme in all of the biblical songs. And God's people seem to bask in it.

Should it be a more prominent theme of our songs?

What do you think?